People flocked to the central square of Slavutych early Sunday, placing candles on a large radiation hazard sign laid down as a midnight memorial began for those killed in the Chernobyl disaster 40 years ago and the thousands who risked fatal radiation exposure to control its aftermath.
Residents turn out for the vigil every year despite a wartime curfew and official warnings against large gatherings during Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The April 26, 1986 disaster highlighted the poor levels of government security and secrecy in the former Soviet Union. The explosion went unreported by the Soviet authorities for two days, only after the wind had blown over Europe and Swedish experts had made public their concerns.
About 600,000 people, often referred to as Chernobyl’s “liquidators”, were sent to fight the fire at the nuclear plant and clean up the worst contamination. Thirty workers died within months from the explosion or severe radiation sickness. The accident exposed millions of people in the region to dangerous levels of radiation and forced the permanent evacuation of hundreds of towns and villages in Ukraine and Belarus.
The town of Slavutych, about 50 kilometers (32 miles) from the old plant, dates back to this period. Although most evacuees were resettled in nearby districts in the Kyiv region, in late 1986 the Soviet authorities began building a town that would house workers from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and their families. The first residents moved in around 1988.
Since then, the city has withstood a brief Russian invasion during Moscow’s failed bid to capture the Ukrainian capital in the early days of the war, as well as severe winters – especially the last, when blackouts forced residents to cook food on open fires in the streets.
